New Resource: Civic Tech & Gov

A new paper by Tiago Peixoto of the World Bank Group and Jonathan Fox of American University may prove a valuable resource for those interested in the relationship between citizen participation and technology. In particular the paper explores the difference between systems that allow for individual feedback and those that allow for more extensive deliberation and collective action, and which allow for better government responsiveness. Peixoto and Fox draw their data not from developing countries, but the implications are broad. From the introduction:

Around the world, civil society organisations (CSOs) and governments are experimenting with information communication technology (ICT) platforms that try to encourage and project citizen voice, with the goal of improving public service delivery. This meta-analysis focuses on empirical studies of initiatives in the global South, highlighting both citizen uptake (‘yelp’) and the degree to which public service providers respond to expressions of citizen voice (‘teeth’).